As soon as I woke up I was in a strange place. Not the safe mans arms but the unknown, encased in a cave of woven sticks and graceful crafting.

I looked up to find I was on the legs of another man. This man had long wavy hair, long pointy ears, and a smile full of sun. The man said something with a wide smile and stroked my head. Their hands touched my horns and stopped on them. Running their hands up and down them.

then they picked me up and said something else, probably something kind, like the other man, the other man with their un-brandished blade and their thick, scar covered arms. But unlike the scar man, this man didn’t even have a blade! Truly, the tree men where kind. This man opened a closed cave entrance and showed me a smaller cave, inside this cave made of tiles and a massive wooden bucket. This bucket was filled with steaming water and the man walked towards it, dunking me in and bringing me out

The man proceeded to wash my whole body with the water and then dried me off. The man dropped me off and left, leaving me to fend for myself. I quickly ate the nuts and fruits that were left when the man left, then I RAN and RAMMED into the closed cave entrance. The cave entrance SHOOK violently and gave under my horns. I pushed and pushed the cave entrance with my horns, pushing my head further and further through. Until, my head slipped through the cave entrance, and my body slipped after it.

As I stood back up I looked down from my slanted platform to see a pathway down to the ground, the pathway was very far up, and very long. I walked down the pathway until I hit the ground and wandered under the other high caves. I wandered, and wandered, seeing no one and understanding nothing here. It’s frustrating. There is no tree man to guide me and there is no tree men here. Why am I here at all?

The questions I asked similarly to when I was being chased, also guides me to a similar answer. I. Don’t. Know. The answer that plagued me for years, the worst sentence I had ever heard, and the only thing that kept me going for this long.

I curled up into a ball on the jungle floor and waited, waited for either the man with no blade or the man with scar covered arms.

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And I waited, at this point it had been 3/4 sunrise so far, the sun will soon be fading and I was still waiting. Refusing, to move.

Then, when it was the beginning of the moon rise, the scar covered man walked up to me, Picking me up as they had before, and whispered to me, again. I couldn’t understand, but the meaning was clear, they could almost see my every thought. “Do you want to know?”

I nodded, which felt unnatural but it was all I could do, so I nodded and waited for their response, which was another set of words, but they felt different, for some reason, I could… understand. It wasn’t like I could understand their language, but like they could understand MINE.

and so when they were done chanting I felt nothing different, but I knew something was, the words they spoke were a pact, something that felt sacred and special, and something I was connected to someone by now.

‘How is it?’

I could tell the man was not talking, but thinking. The only way I could understand.

‘A little rude to call a women a man ya know’

Women? What is a women? Are they like the men?

‘Kinda. Anyways, I’ll teach you this world, as long as you become my partner in crime.’

Crime? Partner? What are all these strange things? Will you tell me?

‘Well the crime part doesn’t matter but crime is the breaking of justice, which you’ll uphold with me soon.’

Will I be a part of the destroying of crime? Will I be your partner in justice?

‘You catch on quick kid.’

The newly found ‘woman’ held me in her arms but didn’t move, stuck in thought, thoughts that I, couldn’t hear for some reason.

‘Anyways, what’s your name kid.’

Name? Do I need one to uphold justice?

‘Yea, and since you don’t seem to have any ideas, we’ll call you Dezenym*, for your lack of a outspoken voice.’

Dez-e-nym?

‘Yes. Dezenym. That’s you. And I’m Lorie, your new partner in proverbial crime.’

AND CRIME WE SHALL DESTROY!

Only now did we realize, me- Dezenym and her- Lorie, despite our short conversation, the first of which I’ve ever had with one of the men- no, one of the WOMEN! My knowledge of this expansive and mysterious world is growing every sunrise!

Speaking of sunrise though, it was not any longer, the three quarters sun rise I had be basking in was no longer, and it was now half a moon rise! The her- Lorie walked me over to the old up-cave, which the her- Lorie proceeded to tell me that caves are caves, and houses are houses. Houses. Not caves? These tree caves are not caves, but houses? This world is more and more mysterious.

The her- Lorie puts me down in a soft ‘bed’ as she calls it, which doesn’t remind me of a tall grass field at all. And that tall grass field reminds me of the men. The men. The men who are now separated from the tree men and women, but the men are the men, and the others do not chase like the men, and the Lorie did not chase, but take and feed and bath and answer questions.

And… the Lorie is gone, leaving me only the age old answer of I don’t know, but not the frustration, because I’ll ask the Lorie, in the morning.